- case study
- in-depth analysis of a single event, situation, or individual
- code of ethics
- a set of guidelines that the American Sociological Association has established to foster ethical research and professionally responsible scholarship in sociology
- content analysis
- applying a systematic approach to record and value information gleaned from secondary data as it relates to the study at hand
- correlation
- when a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable, but does not necessarily indicate causation
- dependent variables
- a variable changed by other variables
- empirical evidence
- evidence that comes from direct experience, scientifically gathered data, or experimentation
- ethnography
- observing a complete social setting and all that it entails
- experiment
- the testing of a hypothesis under controlled conditions
- field research
- gathering data from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or a survey
- Hawthorne effect
- when study subjects behave in a certain manner due to their awareness of being observed by a researcher
- hypothesis
- a testable educated guess about predicted outcomes between two or more variables
- independent variables
- variables that cause changes in dependent variables
- interpretive framework
- a sociological research approach that seeks in-depth understanding of a topic or subject through observation or interaction; this approach is not based on hypothesis testing
- interview
- a one-on-one conversation between the researcher and the subject
- literature review
- a scholarly research step that entails identifying and studying all existing studies on a topic to create a basis for new research
- meta-analysis
- a technique in which the results of virtually all previous studies on a specific subject are evaluated together
- nonreactive research
- using secondary data, does not include direct contact with subjects and will not alter or influence people’s behaviors
- operational definitions
- specific explanations of abstract concepts that a researcher plans to study
- participant observation
- when a researcher immerses herself in a group or social setting in order to make observations from an “insider” perspective
- population
- a defined group serving as the subject of a study
- primary data
- data that are collected directly from firsthand experience
- qualitative data
- comprise information that is subjective and often based on what is seen in a natural setting
- quantitative data
- represent research collected in numerical form that can be counted
- random sample
- a study’s participants being randomly selected to serve as a representation of a larger population
- reliability
- a measure of a study’s consistency that considers how likely results are to be replicated if a study is reproduced
- samples
- small, manageable number of subjects that represent the population
- scientific method
- an established scholarly research method that involves asking a question, researching existing sources, forming a hypothesis, designing and conducting a study, and drawing conclusions
- secondary data analysis
- using data collected by others but applying new interpretations
- surveys
- collect data from subjects who respond to a series of questions about behaviors and opinions, often in the form of a questionnaire
- validity
- the degree to which a sociological measure accurately reflects the topic of study
- value neutrality
- a practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgment during the course of a study and in publishing results